Judd Apatow risks possible life-threatening harm simply by going to work. Across the street from the filmmaker's modest office building is a cellphone tower that emits electromagnetic radiation. So maybe it isn't too odd that the fertile mind that gave birth to such genre-defining sex comedies as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up would next confront the heavy subject of death in his third directorial effort, Funny People, opening Friday.

She was Maude, a Golden Girl, a Broadway baby and, most of all, a force of nature. From stage to TV and back, her tough, no-nonsense approach was appealing, affirming and amusing. Here's looking at you, Bea Arthur.

With Bea Arthur, waiting for the line was half the fun. Make no mistake: Arthur, who died Saturday of cancer at 86, could deliver a joke or a song with the best of them. But what fans of her two big sitcom hits, Maude and The Golden Girls, really came to love was the slow-burn pause before the line the eyes throwing daggers before the tongue delivered the zinger.